Chinatown Country Club
Retail + Cafe | Sydney CBD | Completed 2022
+INDE Awards 2022 (The Retail Space), shortlisted+
+Better Future - Sydney Design Awards 2024, shortlisted+
Chinatown Country Club is an independent fashion concept, headquartered in Sydney. The shop is intended to be a safe space for locals to enjoy coffee, food, fashion, books and music; like a social club. To enable the client’s vision, the space features a small café and an open retail area—guests can grab a coffee, take a seat to view changing artwork from local artists, and browse the shelves in an unrushed format. Chinatown Country Club is a familial space and a platform for the client’s eclectic tastes. The design echoes this philosophy with an emphasis on gathering spaces, focal points for art and fashion and traditional Chinese design accents.
To combine the incongruous worlds of high-end fashion and the familiarity of a local club, creating different zones was important. There needed to be intimate areas for shoppers to feel special, but also gathering space to welcome guests and have conversations. I developed a concept of an “alleyway” to divide and connect the zones.
Made up of booths that were constructed in the traditional timber and stucco style, the alleyway evokes old Chinese “hutongs”, transforming liminal space into functional retail sections. The subdued colour palette and materiality provides a neutral canvass for the fashion and artists on display.
In the café, I wanted to enhance the feeling of a living room by introducing plants, the client and myself came up with the idea of having plants literally grow out of the furniture. A custom-built community table was commissioned that served as an entrée to the store and an invitation for shoppers to linger and chat.
Ultimately, the design aims to convey luxury in new and subtle ways, by providing a platform for the clothes to shine, but also introducing surprising details that spark moments of discovery, a cheeky selfie or an interesting conversation.
